Monaco GP qualifying results.

Ricciardo revenge on the cards with Monaco pole

Joas van Wingerden

Saturday 26 May 2018 16:00

Daniel Ricciardo took just the second pole position of his Formula 1 career at the Monaco Grand Prix, two years on from his first at Monte Carlo. Red Bull had looked dominant before Saturday's session, but Ricciardo will fight alone at the front after Max Verstappen's practice crash.

Having topped the timesheets of every session so fa this weekend, Ricciardo has been lowering the lap record steadily through the weekend and ended Saturday having taken the benchmark to one minute 10.810 seconds - a record that is likely to stand for some time.

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However, Red Bull's joy is tempered somewhat by the fact that their cars will bookend the field - Verstappen to start last after crashing out of the swimming pool chicane in FP3, damaging the gearbox sufficiently to require a change which also prompted an immaterial five-place grid penalty.

Ricciardo will hope he can convert pole to a seventh grand prix victory, after the win was snatched away from him here two years ago by a botched pitstop.

Ferrari appear the only team truly capable of taking the fight to Ricciardo, and Sebastian Vettel joins him on the front row, having won from second place last year.

Mercedes, forced to abandon a plan to start on ultrasofts due to a lack of Q2 pace, will flank Kimi Raikkonen on the grid, with Lewis Hamilton going third-fastest - a vastly improved performance from 12 months ago, which saw the reigning champion start 14th.

Force India's pace was a surprise and Esteban Ocon will start sixth, just ahead of the McLaren of Fernando Alonso.

Carlos Sainz Jr, Sergio Perez and the impressive Pierre Gasly complete the top 10.

Q3 CLASSIFICATION: Can anyone catch @danielricciardo? ????#MonacoGP ???????? #F1 pic.twitter.com/Pmbbhxu5GM — Formula 1 (@F1) May 26, 2018

PROVISIONAL CLASSIFICATION
1. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) - 1:10.810	2. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) - +0.229
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) - +0.422	4. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - +0.456
5. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) - +0.631	6. Esteban Ocon (Force India) - +1.251
7. Fernando Alonso (McLaren) - +1.300	8. Carlos Sainz Jr (Renault) - +1.320
9. Sergio Perez (Force India) - +1.344	10. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso) - +1.411
11. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault) - 1:12.411	12. Stoffel Vandoorne (McLaren) - 1:12.440
13. Sergey Sirotkin (Williams) - 1:12.521	14. Charles Leclerc (Sauber) - 1:12.714
15. Romain Grosjean (Haas) - 1:12.728	16. Brendon Hartley (Toro Rosso) - 1:13.179
17. Marcus Ericsson (Sauber) - 1:13.265	18. Lance Stroll (Williams) - 1:13.323
19. Kevin Magnussen (Haas) - 1:13.393	20. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) - NO TIME

Nico Hulkenberg suffered a rare qualifying defeat to his team-mate as Sainz made Q3 alongside Alonso, Gasly and the Force Indias. Sergey Sirotkin will start 13th and has massively outperformed Lance Stroll in the Williams this weekend. Romain Grosjean qualified 15th, but will serve a three-place grid drop.

The session was largely overshadowed by the race in the Red Bull garage, where Verstappen ran out of time. Kevin Magnussen went from best of the rest in Barcelona to last on-track here, with Stroll, Marcus Ericsson and Brendon Hartley - unlucky to run into traffic on his final flyer - going out.